MANAGER: He's in the latter stages of his introduction

Manager Keith Curle today confirmed that he’s looking to arrange another bounce game next week as he continues to assess Alexander McQueen, who returned for training with the club three weeks ago.

“Alex is coming to the latter stages of his introduction back into the football club,” he said. “We’re looking to arrange another game next week, to get another look at him out on the pitch, because he’s been doing very well in training.

“We think we’ll be in a better position to make some kind of decision by the end of next week. As we’ve said before, if we bring people into the club there has to be rhyme and reason behind it.

“We know we have areas which need improvement because we still think there’s more to come from this group if we can add different skill-sets.”

“We’re continuing to monitor Kevin Wright, the ex-Chelsea lad, but he’s still injured so he hasn’t been back up to us,” he added. “In terms of looking at other players, that’s a work in progress.

“I’ve had a conversation with the stakeholders at the club about being proactive in January. We need to know if finances are available and if we need to shuffle our pack a little bit to create room.

“Cup revenue can help with that but we do want to be proactive with the work we do. If you look at the teams who went on to be successful last season, they were very proactive in the transfer window as they looked to bring additional qualities into their squads.

“With players going out the other way, there are certain lads in the squad who I think need game time, but the deal has to be right for them and us. If somebody leaves our squad they’ve got to be playing games.”

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